{"id":81087,"date":"2026-07-06T11:02:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=81087"},"modified":"2026-07-29T09:13:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T08:13:03","slug":"the-uptime-dilemma-aligning-security-and-resilience-in-the-mena-gcc-energy-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2026\/07\/06\/the-uptime-dilemma-aligning-security-and-resilience-in-the-mena-gcc-energy-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"The uptime dilemma: Aligning security and resilience in the MENA\/GCC energy sector"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Digital transformation of the MENA\/GCC energy sector is accelerating. Driven by national economic initiatives such as Saudi Arabia\u2019s Vision 2030, critical infrastructure operators are increasingly connecting Operational Technology (OT) to corporate systems. However, the <em>2026 MENA\/GCC OT Cybersecurity Resilience CXO Priorities<\/em> survey, conducted in collaboration with TXOne Networks, reveals significant structural tension between maintaining continuous production uptime and establishing robust digital security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gathering insights from more than 60 senior leaders across six regional markets (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain\/Kuwait, Egypt), the executive research highlights the complex technical, operational and geographical challenges currently facing industrial enterprises. The\u00a0full findings, including additional data on investment drivers and risk priorities, are available in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.txone-mea.com\/mena-gcc-operators\">TXOne Networks&#8217; 2026 Executive Research Report.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1. The asset visibility divide<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Accurate risk management depends entirely on comprehensive asset inventories. However, the research indicates a profound discrepancy in visibility across the region:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>28% of surveyed organisations maintain a fully automated, real-time inventory of all modern and legacy assets.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>44% operate with limited or minimal visibility, relying primarily on manual spreadsheets and periodic audits.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In highly distributed energy environments, active IT scanning tools carry the risk of destabilising sensitive legacy hardware. To preserve operational continuity, 72% of operators rely on partial automation or manual tracking. This reliance on static documentation often fails to capture dynamic configuration changes, causing organisations to underestimate their actual attack surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2. Legacy vulnerability deadlocks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Managing the lifecycles of industrial equipment introduces distinct maintenance challenges. Industrial operators frequently navigate a difficult trade-off between immediate operational availability and security remediation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>37% of leaders state that strict 24\/7 operational uptime requirements prevent traditional software patching.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>47% are constrained either by the risk of system instability (\u2018bricking\u2019 older hardware) or a complete lack of OEM vendor support for aging Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Because standard IT security frameworks mandate frequent, disruptive updates, conventional remediation strategies frequently conflict with the financial and operational imperatives of continuous production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3. Converging threats and architectural strategies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Executive concerns have shifted towards the digital vectors that precede physical disruption. <strong>Ransomware targeting ICS\/SCADA workstations (26%)<\/strong> and <strong>unauthorised third-party or OEM remote access (26%)<\/strong> are now cited as primary anxieties, slightly outranking immediate physical safety risks or production downtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To mitigate these multi-vector threats, organisations are deploying multi-layered architectures. Strategic priorities are balanced relatively evenly across several areas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>28% prioritise Virtual Patching to protect unpatchable assets without operational disruption.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>26% focus on strengthening Secure Remote Access for external contractors.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>23% are implementing OT-native network micro-segmentation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>23% are establishing OT-specific Security Operations Centres (SOCs).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Addressing structural barriers to maturity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The survey emphasises that achieving OT resilience is influenced as much by organisational and geographical constraints as it is by technology. Leaders identified the complexity of managing remote or extreme environments (27%) and a regional shortage of specialised OT cybersecurity talent (26%) as the most significant non-technical barriers to maturity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To resolve these complexities, industrial frameworks are increasingly shifting towards an integrated OT Zero Trust approach. By utilising passive network telemetry, operators can safely map legacy infrastructure in real time without employing disruptive active scans. Furthermore, network-level compensating controls, such as virtual patching allow organisations to filter malicious traffic before it reaches vulnerable endpoints, eliminating the need for system reboots. Vendors such as TXOne Networks provide virtual patching and OT-native micro-segmentation purpose-built to protect these environments without requiring system downtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By aligning technical defences with industrial protocols and utilising automated, ruggedised appliances, MENA\/GCC energy operators can meet stringent regional regulatory frameworks, such as the Saudi NCA OTCC or Dubai&#8217;s DESC, while successfully safeguarding continuous production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>TXOne Networks is a global leader in cyber-physical systems (CPS) security, protecting industrial environments without disrupting operations. For more information, visit&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/urldefense.proofpoint.com\/v2\/url?u=http-3A__www.txone.com&amp;d=DwMGaQ&amp;c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&amp;r=Wv52nGDJP0rCVpzq_q7_H2afy-RjOO_km2d3DYRypCxi0gUuYvSTSzKaWUuUFLfa&amp;m=_5S_jTyrXuJiuasE_YewgD5EYfsGkv6Z0SFyB0o6bqAzk6Nm9RDg93AdamdWnzzo&amp;s=rPRVdtIrYJw-9ni3hCP1qmKcdtNzcpgYpvzDnt5SO5o&amp;e=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">www.txone.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Digital transformation of the MENA\/GCC energy sector is accelerating. Driven by national economic initiatives such as Saudi Arabia\u2019s Vision 2030, critical infrastructure operators are increasingly connecting Operational Technology (OT) to corporate systems. However, the 2026 MENA\/GCC OT Cybersecurity Resilience CXO Priorities survey, conducted in collaboration with TXOne Networks, reveals significant structural tension between maintaining continuous [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":81088,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16766,15417,16168,18647],"tags":[20580,20581,16344],"class_list":["post-81087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","category-cybersecurity","category-middle-east","category-technology","tag-cxo-priorities-survey","tag-ot-cybersecurity-resilience","tag-txone-networks"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81087"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81118,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81087\/revisions\/81118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}